In the "client-server" model of interaction in a distributed system, a program at one site sends a request to a program at another site and awaits a response. The requesting program is called a client; the program satisfying the request is called the server.
Communications networks allow clients and servers to exchange information by transmitting and receiving messages on the network. Currently, in order to obtain information from the servers, a client will send a remote request individually to each server from which the client requires information. Also, if the client does not know the address of the server of interest, it will use an external nameservice lookup which returns the server address. The client can then proceed with the individual request to the server.
This prior art technique is illustrated in FIG. 1. The process includes determining a request and the servers of interest (step 91), sending the request to a server (step 92), waiting for all of the responses from the server (step 93), and processing the responses (step 94). Each of steps 92-94 are repeated for each server.
This prior art technique does not provide for a single client request automatically translating into multiple (simultaneous) requests to multiple servers depending on the client's domains of interest. Furthermore, it requires that the client know the address of each server; the client must specify this address in each request. Further, the existing technique does not provide a collated response to multiple requests, even if the multiple requests are related. Also, there is also no overlap in time of the responses received. Instead, each request/response sequence is completed before a request is sent to the next server.